See You on the Other Side

With the departure of David Baker, Mercury Rev began its clear shift to a calmer approach with lusher detail and a sense, even more so than before, of capturing not so much as a lost America but a lost way of how American nostalgia works, as much in the art as anything else. Jonathan Donahue took over all lead vocals and everyone sounds at once a little more settled but also interested in something approaching a musical production. Some standouts include the sweeping “Racing the Tide” and one of their last hints of fried rock edge, “Young Man’s Stride.”